Sunday, July 1, 2012

More Tales From ALA

It's the American Library Association's award for a book that "embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences."

What's that mean for a winning author?

You get honored at ALA with banners and plaques and get to meet some truly outstanding committee members.

It also means that your publisher is happy with you and hosts you as a guest of honor at parties and such.

And what does being a guest of honor at a Random House function held at a Downtown Disneyland restaurant mean to the author?:

Mouse ears!

Yup, the president / publisher presented ALA award winners with Mickey Mouse hats embroidered with our names during one such party, and since I've never owned Ears before I thought it was ubercool and wore mine all night.

I was busy the whole conference with book business so Mark and I didn't visit Disneyland Park for rides, etc., but the boys did. We paid their entry with the proviso that they return with pictures of themselves in front of the White Rabbit's door. Here's why:

That's them together 15 years ago.

And again last weekend.

(No room for togetherness! [And no parent to take the picture])

Maybe it's just a mom thing, but something about this group of pictures makes me really happy.

But back to the conference:

Brian Selznick (the wonderful author of Hugo Cabret) also won a (younger category) Schneider for Wonderstruck, so we were at all the Schneider functions together and I am happy to report that a) he wears awesome cool shoes, and b) he is a fun, seemingly humble and very kind guy. I should also report that c) somewhere out there are pictures of him with my bunny ears messin' up his stylish look. (There's only so much picture-taking I can handle before I spaz out--something he totally got.)

18 comments:

That is so cool that you got Mickey ears! I am a major Disney nerd (Like to the point where I have made crayon melts and did Peter Pan characters for the silhoutte on it) and I an sad to say that I don't have Mickey ears. Very sad. I have been to Disneyland like 5 times and not once have I got Mickey ears. But I have gotten some pretty cool things there, like my name written in Disney characters and a stuffed Tigger that I still have in my room today.

You must be very honored to get an award like that. It must be fun to go to parties that are thrown for you! And the pictures of your sons is really cool! My mom has on of my sister and I sitting on pluto's dog bed and she wants to go back and do a retake of the same spot and faces!

First thing that popped up in my mind when I saw your totally spectacular giant plaque-board thing: Schweeetttttttt. Honestly, congratulations, and now I feel like a total wanker for not reading it yet! But I dont know if I've mentioned this before but I'm like $1,000,000,000 in debt and not the cash type either, the literal credit card maxing out kind and my parents are PO'ed to the max. And my mom hates it when I buy books even though she loves reading. Libraries? As Grams would say, Pshaw. But I have a surprisingly small list of Things To Ask For (Aka Rip Off of My Older Sister) so next time I see her, which is tomorrow since I have no life whatsoever after just getting back from vacation: I will tell her to stop at B&N to buy it!!Lame excuse, I know, but sadly its true. But still. Do the books have those nifty-swifty seal-stickers on them now? Will my copy have a nifty-swifty seal, too!? Will you hang it up on your wall? I would. My mom would. My dad would grunt, behind his laptop, "Cool story bro". You can't beat Daddy Hall, he's a winner. Then again, you've won many an-award, huh? *chuckles wholeheartedly as if we've been lifelong buddies*As for Disneyland, I have never been. Whats that? Missed out on a whole fantastical childhood, you say? Nahh, I used to live in Orlando, so I've been to Disney WORLD one too many times. Plus, we just went to Disney World-not-Land last December. The day I was in Disney World, DisneyLAND had been shut down due to rain. We laughed, they thumbed their noses at us, etc.But anyway, I love how your sons did that photo thing because its totally a thing I would do with my older sister. She's in college but when we're not punching each others' faces in or insulting each others' music tastes, we're super close. Like ALMOST peas in a pod, but we haven't hugged since we were kids. So peas in DISTANT pods. I know I sound like I'm on coke, but I'm not. I'm just feeling spontaneous; again, CONGRATS!! Get some tats...or baseball bats...or hopefully something less frightening...like chicken hats, à la Billy Pratt. (What? They rhyme.) xoxoSteph

Yeah I have been completely broke these past few months. That is why I am happy I got an ARC copy of Justic Jack or I won't have been able to get it until my birthday in October or maybe even Christmas. The only reason I have been able to read new books these past new months are because my dad is a firm believer if you can get it at the library, you don't need to buy it. Which is why I haven't read runaway. But I found an old barnes and noble gift card under my pillow and it has just enough on it to where I can finally get runaway! I have been wanting this book for so long and I can finally get it!

Cut up your credit card! I swear the credit card is the demise of our society. Our government models bad behavior.

Mikey ears are way more fun than they should be. And my name all scrolly on the back (and spelled correctly) makes me childishly happy.

Peter Pan is my favorite second childhood (w/boys years ago) ride.

My honors and framed Flipped poster are hidden behind the door of my office. Well, except for Eddie Poe...he didn't fit. I'm not into displaying, but it is nice to come upon them every now and then. Like when I dust back there. Twice a year.

I totally LOVED how you wrote "Mikey" ears. #SammyKeyesProbzAnd cut my credit card? Would you like some fries with Horrific-Image-in-My-Head shake??? I have no stomach to do such things! I'm a bad person, basically. And, a shopaholic. Sadly.And YAY, I love nifty-swifty seals! They're neat-o! ('50/'60s terms for "cool" are so much more rad than "cool").

That is why I am so glad I don't have a credit card! The only "cards" I have in my wallet are my I.D. cards, all my expired Barnes and Noble gift cards because everyone always gets me the really cool looking ones with like Winnie the Pooh and things like that on them. My older sister has one so when he goes on trips for FFA my parets can get her money easier, but she totally uses the card for other things that she should be like taking her friends to lunch and buying coffee when she wants it.

And the Peter Pan ride is my second favorite to Pirates of the Caribbean. Whenever I go on it I try to touch the stars and once I actually got to hit one! I was really happy!

I personally think that it is really cool that you don't have you stuff right on display. That the awesomeness of having such accomplishments doesn't wear off. But instead you get to feel the accomplishmeant every day, and when you really want to just bask in the moment it us all you have to do is close your door. You know what I mean? I don't think I got it across the exact way I wanted to but I think what you are doing is the exact same thing I would do.

Haha! Totally can see that! Or someone asking someone what they bought at a bookstore. Oh geez all the awkard conversation that can happen because of this book.

My friend bought me this book called, "The Day My Butt Went Psycho." And when I asked her why she bought it she said that she couldn't stop laughing at the title and she figured I would laugh as well. Well, I did.

I was reading a book today and the main character said she "pooh-poohed" something. Immature as I am, I burst out laughing and texted my sister saying I just saw a VERB, "pooh-poohed" and my sister was like, "I know, its a stupid french term, LOL".

YEAH!!! I remembered seeing purple on the cover online but when I got my copy, it was slightly different, so I was like, "Hmmm, what is DIFFERENT here?" Eventually I got it, though. This is a question regarding my debt, etc: How different is the Justice Jack ARC from the actual book? Because if it has some major differences like a character change or whatever, all that stuff, I'd buy an actual copy. But if its only small grammar changes (I only caught like 1 quotation mark error, I believe), then I won't really need to re-buy it.Because yes, I'd re-buy it if it hassome detrimental chsnge, I'm that dedicated. Even in my million dollar debt, I'd manage. But why would I rebuy if it didn't have huge changes? I've been meaning to ask that question for a while, but since JJ is so close, might as well ask it now. :)

And, omg. How about, Playing with Pooh?Wow, now I feel really dirty. #Naughty #WinnieDoesNotApprovexoxo

I've never been to Disneyland or Disneyworld; my family was DeVries-sized (plus one), so our vacations were always a week renting a cottage at the beach, or camping by a river (which we all loved, so we totally weren't feeling deprived or anything). But yeah, I have yet to experience the thrill of mouse ears.

I love looking at family photos. My mom had one in her wallet for years, taken when I was a baby (so it had 5 of the 6 of us), and she pasted a little floating head of my little brother as a baby in the corner. With the oldest in high school, I guess it was too hard to get us all together for another picture? Anyway, it's fun to study pictures of all of us because we all look related to various degrees, but each pair shares different features -- even those of us who supposedly take very strongly after different ethnic backgrounds (e.g., Irish or Polish or German), there's still a little bit of the others in there somewhere.

Steph, have you ever calculated how much you're actually paying for something, once you factor in the interest? A $10 movie ticket can actually be $50 or more, depending on how slowly you pay it off. Or think about how long you have to work to pay for something using (real, after-taxes pay, which is a lot less than you think) -- is it really worth 10 hours of your life? I have a lot of friends (and a sibling or two) who started post-college life with a lot of credit card debt on top of student loan debt, and they were working their butts off for years to pay for stuff that they couldn't even remember what it was anymore. At least student loan debt hopefully is tied to a degree and a better paying job (so it sort of pays for itself). If cutting the card is too scary, how about freezing it? So you have to at least wait for it to thaw and consider whether the purchase is really worth it.

Oh! One of the librarians saw that I was checking out two of the Sammy Keyes books and asked if that's what they were; he said he'd been meaning to get to that series for a while, so I told him to move it to the top of his list. I'm sure once he does he'll start recommending them.

I already froze my card, Jessica! :( And I'm last-minute applying to Pink. Minimum wage, but hey. And yes, I will blame the hefty taxes. I just got back from vacation in Rhode Island and they have NO clothing taxes. Stupid large city taxes. :( On vacations: I went cliffdiving this week on Ocean Drive in Rhode Island :). It was cool, but not as cool as ziplining in Mexico (November 2010). :)))

I've been to Disneyland a few times and Disney World once, but i have never bought the mouse ears. I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but your sons are wearing the same color shirts and Colton is wearing a watch on the same hand. Was that planned?I went to Disneyland like 2 weeks ago and my favorite ride might have been Indiana Jones. Matterhorn was closed so that sucked. I hate roller coasters so i was freaked on some of the rides.The water show was amazing at the end. The worst part about Disney is that i felt like my feet were dying. Sometimes i almost , unconscious, started to crawl because i had blisters on my feet and i felt crippled.We get there at like 9:00 and leave at 12:00 so i'm always about to collapse. Whenever we go to LA we do Disney in one day and Universal Studios the next. Anyone go there?

I was scared on Splash Mountain, but i was TERRIFIED on the Jurassic Park ride. The worst part was, a girl in front of me had to be checked twice because they wasn't sure if she reached the height limit, and she was all smiles after the free fall while i was shaking. My cousin and brothers went on it twice.

That's the picture on Splash Mountain and i'm in front of the guy with a red shirt and behind the guy holding the cup. All you can see is my scarf, as i was ducking so low. My cousin was in front. #ScaredOfFreefalls--Yusayera

I'm glad you had fun, Wendelin. :) There's always something nostalgic about seeing a picture from the past against a picture now, isn't there? Can't wait for Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack! One more week! It comes out 13 days before my birthday, but I'm trying to convince my sister not to make me wait 'til my birthday to open it once she gets me a copy. I really want to read it! I'm suffering Sammy withdraws! ^_^

That's such a cool award! I had a dream last night in which I was staring out of Hicklebees to the parking lot (They don't have a parking lot from what I remember) and there was a huge truck painted and all with shoes like the ones on The Running Dream. And then it had the title (The Running Dream) painted through the middle in the same font as the one on the book cover. Twas gorgeous. I wish it existed :(

Disneyland I've gone to many a times, and Universal Studios a few. Disneyworld, I've only been to once.

Hi guys. I just wanted to say, for all of you people who have read Night of Skulls which its safe to assume is all of you, I did a piano-version cover of "Free Fallin" on my blog. With me, like, actually singing it. Not just playing the piano. Like I actually covered the song because that's what "covering" a song means, okay I'm babbling now but yeah. It's the post thats titled "My cover of Free Fallin". On simplysammykeyes.blogspot.com. The latest post actually depending on when you read this.Anyway thats about as direct as it gets. I'm not an amazing singer but ok.And obviously I chose that song because of Billy and Casey singing it (well, its Zombie-fied version) in Night of Skulls. :) I needed something interesting to put on the blog since I was losing ideas (my other recent-ish post was about Ryan Gosling and Channing Tatum and Casey, isn't that just stupid?)Well thats all I wanted to say, coolxoxoSteph:)

One of the ways that we know that you're not just a normal person but the author of an AMAZING book series is the fact that you can say things like: "I've never had Ears before so I thought it was uber-cool and wore mine all night.", and we will think of you no lower; indeed, if at all possible, my opinion of you went up when I read that!Sadly for me, I HAVE read Justice Jack, (that's not the sad part) but I suck as an SK fan in general because I'm broke, like, always, and I have the copy on my nook. I have never owned an actual COPY of the Sammies, so I will probably never see any nifty-swifty seal, as Steph put so well.